HOOPP’s Rachel Arbour says plan design, not pay, is the lever sponsors can actually pull
BPM Asks put its weekly question set on the gender pension gap to Rachel Arbour, senior vice president of pension design and strategy at the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) in Toronto, where she said more than 80 percent of members are women.
Women in Canada receive about 83 cents for every dollar of retirement income men receive, a gap of roughly 17 percent, according to Understanding the Gender Pension Gap in Canada, a May 2024 report prepared by Elizabeth Shilton for the Ontario Pay Equity Office. The gap stood at 15 percent in 1976, the first year with meaningful data.
Private pensions, the pillar employers control, carry the widest gap of the three at 25 percent, the report found.
Most retirement planning tools are still built around an unbroken career and steady earnings, Jillian Kennedy, chief operating officer at CAAT Pension Plan, told Benefits and Pensions Monitor in March 2026.
“I think women in particular, because they do live longer on average, because of some of the behavioral characteristics that might have them saving later, or gaps in their work, they’re definitely going to be impacted more than their counterparts,” Kennedy said.
What holds women’s retirement income back
“Pensions are based on earnings and years of service. That formula in itself is very gender neutral. But of course, the practical reality is that women may have interrupted service while they are primary caregivers and as a result their earnings may not grow at the same rate as their male counterparts,” Arbour said in an email to Benefits and Pensions Monitor.
Why private plans have been slow to act on the gender pension gap
Per Arbour, “Private pensions, regardless of whether they are a DC or a DB plan, are usually single-employer plans.” Arbour said a multi-employer plan such as HOOPP can look at the pension benefit in isolation and design it to suit all members, regardless of where they work.
Pillar three’s gap has narrowed from a peak of 30 percent, the Pay Equity Office research found, while pillars two and three grew from about 64 percent of combined retirement income in 1976 to over 78 percent by 2021.
How a sponsor can offset a caregiving leave
More than 7.8 million Canadians provide unpaid care each week, Benefits and Pensions Monitor reported in November 2025, citing the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence.
According to Arbour, HOOPP members can already make contributions during any leave.
“Starting on January 1, 2027, taking certain leaves from the workplace, such as a pregnancy and parental leave, will no longer impact early retirement benefits. This change can help our members to qualify for higher early retirement pensions and reach an unreduced early retirement date earlier, even if they do not contribute during the leave,” she said.
Why eligibility rules still leave part-time workers out
Women made up 75.8 percent of part-time workers in Canada in 2015, the Pay Equity Office reported.
“HOOPP was one of the first public sector plans to allow part-time workers to join the plan immediately upon being hired, without having to meet any waiting periods. We’ve done this since 2015,” Arbour said. “Other plans often required part-timers to wait a certain amount of time and hit a certain earnings threshold.”
The one change a sponsor could make this year
“Design your plan to reflect the reality that women, more than men, have interrupted service. Make it easier for part-timers to join. Allow someone on leave to continue to make contributions. Finding ways to help members get the maximum value out of the pension when they can’t or don’t want to work full-time hours,” Arbour said.
